Serving Midwest Aviation Since 1960
Serving Midwest Aviation Since 1960
Sorted by date Results 101 - 123 of 123
Tom Lymburn We'd just pulled into the parking lot at the hotel in Ripon where we've stayed for the last 25 years when Sue pointed up and asked, "What's that?" The "What" was Golden Wings' Fairchild FC-2W2 flown by Jim Obowa, just making the turn over Ripon to follow the railroad tracks toward Fisk and Oshkosh. Timing. It's all about timing. Whether it's the convergence of the stars or planets or just plain dumb luck, timing. Something that brings together the old and the new, history and the...
Known as the Bird, Brunner-Winkle Bird, and the Perth-Amboy Bird, this 1929 gem has a lot of history behind it. Luminaries such as Wiley Post, Lee Gehlbach, Clarence Chamberlain, and Milo Burcham all had Birds. The best known owner of a Bird Model BK was Charles Lindbergh who purchased one for $3500 in the fall of 1930 for his wife Anne. It was in NC727Y that she earned her pilot's license, passing her flight test on 29 May 1931. NC727Y still flies, now based in Maryland. Produced under Approved...
The de Havilland DH 114 Heron, which first flew at Hatfield on 10 May 1950, proved adaptable to stretching and engine changes. Initially powered by four de Havilland Gipsy Queens of 250 to 340 hp, it was later rebuilt with 260 and 340 hp Lycomings. The ultimate modification came in 1969 when Saunders Aircraft of Gimli, Manitoba, reconfigured a Heron Mk. II with a lengthened fuselage, a reengineered wing, and a pair of 715 hp P & W PT -6A turboprops. The fuselage stretch was eight feet six...
The Vintage Aircraft Association's "Round Engine Rodeo" in 2013 attracted a wide variety of beautiful and rare radial engined classics. Waco, Travel Air, Beech, Stinson, Stearman, Spartan, Grumman, de Havilland, Howard, Lockheed, Douglas - you name it, the great radial engined aircraft were represented. One unique biplane parked a little ways from Greg Herrick's Stinson trimotor that I was ground crew on, was the one of a kind Flaglor High Tow, a 220 hp Continental powered glider tug built by...
In this day of Predators, Reapers, Global Hawks, and other unmanned aerial vehicles, we forget that aircraft similar in concept have been trialed over the whole course of aviation's century plus evolution. The Boeing YQM-94A is one example. Ordered in 1971 by the U.S. Air Force Aeronautical System Division for high altitude, long RANGE unmanned recon, the YQM-94A and the Ryan YQM-98A, were meant to launch and recover from a fixed runway. Two prototypes of each were ordered. The YQM-94A was...
The famous Italian aircraft manufacturer Piaggio has existed in three forms. Begun in 1915 at Genoa by industrialist Rinaldo Piaggio, it built parts for Caproni bombers and Macchi flying boats during World War I. Then it specialized in multi-engined aircraft until the armistice in 1943. Re-formed in 1946, Piaggio built trainers, including the P-148 and P-149, for military use. It was restructured again in 1964. Derived from the two seat P-148 tail dragger that first flew in 1951, the...
The American Helicopter Company was formed in 1947 and produced a small series of pulse jet rotor helicopters beginning with the A-5 "Top Sergeant" in January 1949. This was followed in 1950 by the A-6 "Buck Private." Neither design made it beyond the prototype stage. In 1951 the Army Transportation Corps joined the Air Force in calling for a one man, lightweight helicopter that could be airlifted and used for observation or rescue. In June 1951 a contract was awarded to the American Helicopter...
This month's winner Dave Gunderson of Mora wrote, "This little beauty is a Hannaford Bee-model D-1, completed in 1981 by homebuilder John Bright." Joe Connell of Stewartville wasn't fooled either, "I have a Kitfox and used to share a hangar at the Rochester Airport with John Hanson who built a Parakeet." Barry Taylor of Ottumwa, Iowa, called it, "One of my favorite airplanes." Graydon Carlson found the answer in a 1955-1956 issue of Air Progress magazine! Did you note the two different spellings...
I checked the 300 mm on my Nikon for the third time and made sure the filter was clean. Arrival of the honored guest was only minutes away. She was an old friend. I'd first spotted her sitting among the clover on the east side of Flying Cloud Airport when I was finishing my private pilot license at Beech Aero. There was no mistaking her perfect lines. It was April 1983. Another photographer by the gas pumps pointed and we listened, then watched as Doug Rozendaal made an overhead approach,...
In the years before the Second World War, air racing was the catalyst for improvements in engines, fuels, lubricants, streamlining, and structure. Part of that development encompassed the famous Menasco powered racers of the 1930s. An air cooled, inverted, four or six cylinder inline engine, ranging from the 90 hp Pirate to the souped up 315 hp Buccaneer, they powered racers built by Bennie Howard, Clayton Folkerts, Lawrence Brown, Art Chester, and Keith Rider. Herschel Smith in A History of...
I snugged the crotch straps and aligned the shoulder harness - careful to keep the D-ring uncovered. CLIP. And CLIP again. Stage one done. Now for the four-point harness. Another set of shoulder straps - then the wide lap belt with the quick release, locked and set- almost. The plugs for my trusty David Clarks are behind my left elbow. I ease the straps and Wayne deftly reaches under my arm pit and plugs in and I'm good. Good and tight. My old Nomex zipped. Velcro cuffs tight. Flying gloves...
My allergies are acting up. I wipe my nose with a rumpled cotton handkerchief that normally is stuffed in my back pocket. Sue grimaces at this practice, but wisely says nothing. I start the Jetta, trip the wipers, fore and aft, to get the dew off the windscreen, and back out, down the steep driveway from the hotel parking lot, and head for Wisconsin 44 at Ripon's 25 mph. Up the long hill, past the old cookie plant, workers carrying lunch pails, walk into the side entrance, past the sweet corn...
Before the end of WWII, Trans-Canada Air Lines foresaw the need for a domestically produced airliner. After considering the Douglas and Lockheed products, the decision was made to adapt the DC-4 with 1760 hp Rolls Royce Merlin 620 engines and a pressurized fuselage. The RCAF also expressed interest, but without the pressure cabin. After the war, Canadair brought C-54 tooling and components from Douglas's Chicago plant. Initial DC-4M and C-54GM production used many Douglas built parts. The...
Built using the wings, tail feathers, landing gear and engine mount from the DH-82 Tiger Moth mated to a new fuselage, the Fox Moth, capable of carrying four passengers, first flew from Stag Lane on 29 January 1932, attaining its type certificate on 20 May 1932. The prototype, G-ABUO, was shipped to Canada for tests on skis and floats. Registered CF-API, it continued in service until 1950. Ninety-eight Fox Moths were built in the UK, serving small airlines and racing in the King's Cup. The...
Frank Piasecki founded PV Engineering in 1941. His experimental PV-2 helicopter appeared in April 1943, followed by NACA awarding him Helicopter Pilot Certificate No. 1. The H-21 (the May 2011 Mystery Plane) was followed by the PV-14, which led to the Navy's HUP "Retriever" and the Army's H-25 "Army Mule." Powered by a 550 hp R-975 radial engine, the HUP had a maximum speed of 108 mph and a range of 360 miles. Its useful load with two pilots, was 1650 pounds, four to seven passengers or three...
In 1933, Professor Heinrich Focke resigned as Technical Director of Focke-Wulf to purse his interest in rotary winged aircraft. Beginning by license building Don Juan de la Cierva's C.19 autogyro, he worked with aerobatic pilot Gerd Achgelis toward perfecting a practical helicopter. His Fa-223 Drache was one of the few helicopters, along with the Flettner Fl-282 Kolibri and the Sikorski R-4, to see WWII service. In early 1942, the Kriegsmarine asked Focke-Achgelis to design a gyro kite to be...
The design team of Artyom Mikoyan and Mikhail Guryevich was formed in December 1939 to produce fighters for the Red Air Force. The wartime MiG-3 was fast, but a handful to fly. Post war, the team collaborated on the first Soviet jet, the MiG-9, and followed this with the Korean War MiG-15 and the Viet Nam War MiG-17 and MiG-21. Guryevich retired in 1964 and Mikoyan died in 1970. Designed to replace the MiG-21, MiG-23 and Su-17 with the Soviet Air Forces' Frontal Aviation, the prototype MiG-29...
The position lights of the Southwest Airlines 737 wink as she climbs steeply o the south past the red light on the nearby mountain. From the 21st floor window the runway lights of the parallels vanish into the darkness. We're in a bowl. Reno city lights dim at four-thirty. I can't sleep. It's Sunday. The Gold race is today. Traffic on 395 is mostly heading north even this early. We'll be in it soon, heading to Stead and the participants' lot, the yellow vest waving us cheerfully in for one last...
Loening OA-1A Grover C. Loening, a 1911 graduate of Columbia University, worked with Orville Wright and the Army Signal Corps before forming Loening Aeronautical Engineering in 1917. He was the first to have a degree in Aeronautical Engineering. First appearing in 1923 as the COA-1, his OA-1 observation amphibian was powered by a 425 hp Liberty. The Army ordered 45 between 1924 and 1928, primarily for use in Hawaii and the Philippines. Fifteen were OA-1A models costing $21,000 each. The landing...
We didn't get drowned, mired in the mud, scorched by the sun, knocked over by a 50 mph gust front or wilted by the heat index. Was it really Oshkosh? The weather proved unusually mild for a change, but there were other noticeable changes. Large empty spots due to sequestration appeared on the main display ramp, in the Federal Pavilion and in the FAA building. Modern military aircraft were absent, as was participation by NASA. Zaug's, the seemingly perpetual food vender was gone, replaced by a...
Former RAF Flight Lieutenant Nicholas Comper formed the Comper Aircraft Company at Hooten Park in 1929 to build the Swift. Its prototype, G-AARX, first flew on 16 April 1930, powered by a 35 hp ABC Scorpion engine. Forty-one Swifts were manufactured and powered by Salmson and Pobjoy radials and de Havilland Gipsy III inlines. With an empty weight of just over 500 pounds and wing span of 24 feet, the Swift proved a natural for air racing. Even the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, owned...
Charles Doyle Webster, MN Boeing A75N-1 (N966CD) Vintage Customized Aircraft Runner Up Ron and Diane Fagen Grantie Falls, MN Curtiss P-40K Warhawk (N402WH) Warbird Grand Champion: World War II Gold Wrench – Fagen Fighters Restoration James Hancock South St. Paul, MN Cessna 170 (N5795C) Seaplane – Bronze Lindy Jeff and John Hanson Kasson, MN Hatz Classic (N5795C) Grand Champion Plans Built Homebuilt – Gold Lindy David Smith Milaca, MN Cessna 175A (N7040E) Contemporary Outstanding Customized – Bronze Lindy James Younggren Hallock, MN Piper P...
Wyoming rancher Reuel T. Call and his brothers Ivan and Spencer developed their Call-Air series of light fixed gear wood, steel tube and fabric low-wing strut braced monoplanes for high altitude operations from rough fields. The Model A was ready for production in 1940, but due to the war in Europe, production had to wait until after November 1944 when prohibitions against manufacture of civilian aircraft were lifted. The Call-Air A series was manufactured under Approved Type Certificate #758...
